> I know I've bitched about this before, but for fucks sake, will it ever end? > I'm playing March Madness 2001 for Playstation and for the most part it's> excellent. It's everything I want in a college basketball simulator except for> the AI. There are just certain matches where it decides that you need to lose. > Ok, In some games you play, your guys shouldn't play as well, that's realistic,> but this is the kind of shit that only happens in a basketball player's> nightmare. If you take a shot and another player is even somewhat close to you,> it will be blocked, every single time. Your guys start not going for rebounds,> and if they do, the ball bounces off of their hands. The foul calls are messed> up. Your defense is useless, because they will just run through your guys> somehow and get a dunk. Or an alley-oop. You will get zero steals. I knew it> was just some kind of sick joke by EA when the other team started purposely> missing free throws so that they could grab the rebound and dunk it for more> points. It hate helpless like that. Thankfully I didn't pay actual money for> it, so I can't be too outraged. I would still like to see an explanation from> someone who works for a game dev explaining why they put this hair-pulling> bullshit into otherwise good games.> > I need to start a registry of games that pull this stuff:> > NBA Jam> NBA Hangtime> NCAA March Madness> Need For Speed Underground 1 and 2> F-Zero> Mario Kart Double Dash> Tokyo Xtreme Racer> > What else?>

I've been playing a lot of MKII and 3, and the AI shows no shame in cheating you to death. Start a new game or continue, and the AI goes from anywhere from dumb as rocks to moderate depending on difficulty. Win a couple matches, and then the AI just starts pulling off moves no human could.

They'll throw you out of a sweep, counter every jumping attack, duck every uppercut and roundhouse, and pull off a chain of 3-4 throws on you that is impossible to escape. Drives me nuts. The only way to really beat the cpu is exploit patterns in the way it reacts to your movements.

There were also a couple racing games I played fairly recently that used that damn rubberband AI, but I can't remember which ones or even what system it was on. Pissed me off to the point I didn't want to play the game again though. One of them could have been Mario Kart DS. The cpu seems to get an abnormally large number of those blue turtle shells once you've been in first place for a whole lap...